03 Oct 2017

 Three teams, Bommata, El-Kasi and Untouchable Swallows are this year’s St Ignatius Challenge Cup championship which was played in three wards.

 In Monarch, Bommata beat Phinda Mzala soccer club 1-0 in the final of Group C  at the Mexican Grounds on Monday to pocket the first prize of P5 000. 

In an interview, the chairperson of group C’s organising committee, Gopolang Almando stated that the Challenge cup went well despite having few active committee members on their organising committee.

“In Monarch, we started with seven teams. Starting in group stages and dividing into group A and B. Group A had four teams while group B had three teams,” he noted.

He said two teams from each group proceeded to the semi-finals while Phinda and Bommata faced each other at the final.

Almando applauded the referees for handling the final game professionally and thanked the Member of Parliament (MP) for Francistown West, Ignatius Moswaane for supporting sports in the area.

At Gerald Estates, the Challenge Cup for group A continued with six teams vying for the championship position.

 The teams, according to the group’s organising chairperson, Mmoloki ‘Chix’ Thomas, were organised into two groups with each group having three teams. 

Batakaila and Al Qaeda soccer clubs went as far as the losers’ final where Batakaila won 1-0 and the final pitted Untouchable Swallows against Sophia City Greens and Swallows won 5-4 through penalties to pocket P4 000. 

The second team got P3 000; the third team won P1 500 while number four pocketed P400 while positions five and six teams were given consolation prices of P250 each. 

At Tatitown and Botsalano’s group B, El Kasi emerged champions after beating Celtic 2-1 in the final played on Saturday at Leseding Grounds. 

In an interview after the tournament, the main sponsor of the cup, MP Moswaane said that he was impressed with the overall coordination of the tournament despite a few challenges. 

He expressed optimism that it would grow and called for more partners and sponsors for the next edition of the challenge cup to make it bigger and better. ENDS